Easter Hike

We had a bit of a non-traditional Easter this year.  With Josh still being on break from midterms, we decided to spend Easter Sunday exploring some more of the island that Josh had yet to see.  We have to take advantage of these weekends because they rarely happen! 
Before my parents came to Grenada a few weeks ago, I had never been to Grand E'tang or Seven Sisters Falls, and now I have been twice.  If I didn't have to drive, I'd probably go again because I love it soooo much! 

We woke up Easter morning to a special treat from the Easter Bunny.

Last year's Easter baskets that made it all the way from England!

After breakfast, we headed up to Grand E'tang to see the monkeys!  Luckily, there were no cruise ships in port and so the place was pretty quiet.  Perfect for the two of us.

We then headed to Seven Sisters.  It was a really nice and sunny day and we enjoyed ourselves as we hiked down to the falls.

At the trail head.

Birds of Paradise

Initally, we were the only ones at the falls and so we got to enjoy paradise by ourselves for quite a while.

We ate our packed lunch while we enjoyed the sunshine on the rocks next to the falls.  When some other hikers arrived, we got braver.  They were jumping, so we decided to do it too.  It was a little scary because you had to jump kinda far to hit the deep part of the pool, but I'm glad we did it.

Josh dove! Scary!

I was not quite so brave.

When we got back from our hike, we BBQ'ed hamburgers with Julie and Kevin and spent the evening playing card games.  It was a great Easter Sunday and even though we were unable to spend it with our families in California, we are happy to be blessed with such good friends and such a beautiful island to celebrate Christ's resurrection on.

The Last Day...

...of Mom, Dad, and Rachel's trip to Grenada.  And we ended it with a bang.

Our day started out at Annandale Falls. I have been to Annandale a couple of times, but on this particular day, two HUGE cruise ships were in port and so there were a lot of tourists at the falls. 

And we got to see Jack the Mona Monkey at Annandale.  I met him the last time I was there!

After spending a relatively short amount of time at Annandale, we drove up to Grand E'tang.  I had yet to make it up to Grand E'tang, mostly because when I say up, I mean UP!  The drive is pretty windy and very uphill and kind of hard on poor Toby Toyota and I haven't wanted to attempt the drive with just me and a bunch of girls in case of a problem.  But, Toby did just fine, like he always does and we made it to the top.  Grand E'tang is a nature reserve and is a submarine volcano that is no longer active.  The crater lake is about 1,800 feet above sea level.

In my opinion, the best part about Grand E'tang was the wild monkeys!  I use the term "wild" very loosely, because although these monkeys do in fact live in the wild, they are extremely used to tourists and have become very tame.

All you have to do is call out to them and they come down from the trees.  Oh, and having a banana or two doesn't hurt. :)

He tried to poop on Dad!

Give me that waterbottle!

 These monkeys were all little models!

We finally finished with all the monkey business and headed to Seven Sisters Falls, another location that I had not been to yet.  Seven Sisters has a bit of a reputation for being dangerous.  Many a student has hiked to the falls and jumped into the beautiful pools only to end up with massive bruises on their arms and legs or worse from the impact.  But don't worry, I made Dad promise that we wouldn't do any type of jumping on this trip.

Cliffon, our tour guide and Rachel's Grenadian husband-to-be.

Two of the Seven "Sisters"

Seven Sisters is probably my favorite falls that I have been to in Grenada.  The pools were perfect for swimming in or lounging around and they were just breathtaking.  I definitely need to find the time to bring Josh to see both Seven Sisters and Grand E'tang.

If you thought our day was done after our hike, think again.  When we got back to the apartment, we realized that Mom and Dad hadn't yet been to Lance Aux Epines Beach which is right down the street.  So we walked over for a couple last hours on the Caribbean Sea.

Walking down LAE road.

We headed to Prickly Bay for dinner and dancing and enjoyed the last night with Julie, Kevin, and Phyllis.

Love my BFF JuJu.

He's become such a dancer recently!

We had such a fun, exhausting week and I'm so very glad that some of my family was able to come and spend time on our little island.  We always enjoy having visitors!